ADVERTISEMENT

Oil-Services Investors Yawn at Latest U.S. Sanctions on Russia

Oil-Services Investors Yawn at Latest U.S. Sanctions on Russia

(Bloomberg) -- Investors in the world’s biggest oil-services providers are so far looking past the most punitive round of U.S. sanctions on Russia.

Schlumberger Ltd., the biggest of the hired guns who drill, frack and rejuvenate oil wells globally, has the most at stake in Russia among rivals, J. David Anderson, an analyst at Barclays Plc, said Monday in a phone interview. Even so, that amounts to less than 10 percent of sales at the Houston- and Paris-based contractor.

Dozens of Russian tycoons and companies were slapped with U.S. sanctions and penalties, sending Moscow-traded stocks to their worst drop in four years. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Oil Services Index ticked up 1 percent at 1:10 p.m. in New York.

“From a global oil-market perspective, and the amount of spending that comes out of Russia, it’s a fairly small part of the overall story,” Anderson said. “Investors are probably hesitant to read too much into headlines right now, recognizing that could change very quickly.”

That said, with offshore oil activity still struggling to improve this year, Russia is perhaps more important to Schlumberger than in past years, Anderson said.

As the world’s biggest frackers climb out of the worst crude market crash in a generation, the international oil market is expected to see spending growth for the first time in four years. That’ll be driven in part by Russia, where oil-field spending is expected to grow 6 percent to $37.9 billion, according to Barclays.

Joao Felix, a spokesman at Schlumberger, declined to comment.

“Schlumberger has really been one of the few to call Russia kind of a core part of their international strategy,” Anderson said. “It’s been a fine market, not a great market.”

To contact the reporter on this story: David Wethe in Houston at dwethe@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net, Joe Carroll, Carlos Caminada

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.